Jewel To Keep Minors From Lottery Boxes

September 28, 1996|By Lynn Van Matre, Tribune Staff Writer.

Jewel supermarket managers in the Chicago area have been told to "take whatever steps are necessary" to ensure that minors cannot buy lottery tickets from store vending machines, a company spokeswoman said Friday.

According to Jewel Food Stores spokeswoman Karen Ramos, that could mean disabling or removing the machines or moving them to more visible locations where store personnel could monitor their use.

"We are continuing to meet with Illinois Lottery officials to resolve the situation," she said. "This isn't something you take immediate action on. We have had lottery machines in stores since 1994."

By law, Illinois lottery ticket-buyers must be at least 18 years old. Earlier this month, Dominick's Finer Foods shut down lottery vending machines in its stores after a sting operation by the Illinois State Crime Commission. In the sting, two girls, ages 12 and 14, successfully purchased tickets 20 times from lottery machines at stores in Chicago and the north and northwest suburbs.

A few days later, five stores in Schaumburg voluntarily shut down their machines after a minor purchased tickets at the stores in a similar sting.

Illinois Lottery spokesman Mike Lang described Jewel's course of action as a "reasonable approach" to the matter.

"From our perspective, this whole situation has been blown out of proportion," Lang said. "Lottery vending machines have been in stores for 2 1/2 years, and before this latest round of publicity, we had six complaints at most about minors using them---and about half of those complaints resulted from sting operations by anti-gambling groups."

Lang added that even if a minor were to manage to use the vending machines, the underage gambler would have difficulty cashing in a winning ticket.

John Stanczak, manager of the Jewel at 3531 N. Broadway in Chicago, said the store had posted signs near its lottery vending machines announcing that anyone under age 18 who attempted to buy a ticket would be prosecuted.

"The machines are currently right outside the manager's office," Stanczak said. "We really haven't had a lot of problems."

According to Lang, Dominick's and Jewel stores are among the top sellers of lottery tickets. But Lang noted that more than 75 percent of lottery tickets are sold over the counter, thus the removal of machines from some stores is not expected to result in a decline in ticket sales.